Google’s Latest Search Is for Automaker Partners

Clifford Atiyeh

Jan 15, 2016

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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You kind of figured from the start of Google’s koala-shaped autonomous-car project that the search kingpin really just wanted to create and sell software, not build a production vehicle. That intention is now becoming more clear, so expect a few partnerships between Google and automakers to hit the news this year.

Google first introduced its fleet of white pods without steering wheels or pedals in May of 2014, and the company has logged some 1.3 million autonomous miles in California in both its eponymous car and its rigged fleet of Toyota Prius and Lexus RX vehicles. In 2015, Google offered the media a quick “drive,” got pulled over for going too slow, and showed how it had improved its mapping technology.

In other autonomous-car news, transportation secretary Anthony Foxx (pictured above) announced at the Detroit auto show, a 10-year, $4 billion grant program to fund pilots for connected- and autonomous-vehicle research on public roads. The move will allow automakers and suppliers like Google to expand their vehicle testing nationwide, and solicit their comments on how the federal government should regulate automated vehicles. In particular, Foxx said that within six months, he wants states to follow a “model policy” that, short of a new federal law, would eventually become a national standard like the legal drinking age and graduated driver-licensing programs. The grants are part of President Obama’s budget proposal for the 2016 fiscal year, which begins October 1st.

Autonomous driving still has a ways to go. The California DMV just reported that test drivers from seven companies needed to retake control in their autonomous cars nearly 2900 times in 2015 and part of 2014, with Google reporting 274 such incidences from its 53-car fleet. Everyone, even Google and Tesla—which just had to dial back some of Autopilot’s unlimited functionality—still has plenty of work to do before we reach our autonomous-driving future.